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11.3.4. YEAR(2) Limitations and Migrating toYEAR(4)

Although the internal range of values for YEAR(4) and YEAR(2) is the same (1901 to 2155, and 0000), the display width for YEAR(2) makes that type inherently ambiguous because displayed values indicate only the last two digits of the internal values. The result can be a loss of information under certain circumstances. For this reason, consider avoiding YEAR(2) throughout your applications and using YEAR(4) wherever you need a YEAR data type. This section describes problems that can occur when using YEAR(2) and provides information about migrating existing YEAR(2) columns to YEAR(4). Note that migration will become necessary at some point because support for YEAR data types with display values other than 4, most notably YEAR(2), is reduced as of MySQL 5.6.6 and will be removed entirely in a future release.

YEAR(2) Limitations

Issues with the YEAR(2) data type include ambiguity of displayed values, and possible loss of information when values are dumped and reloaded or converted to strings.

To avoid these problems, use YEAR(4) rather than YEAR(2). Suggestions regarding migration strategies appear later in this section.

Reduced YEAR(2) Support in MySQL 5.6

As of MySQL 5.6.6, support for YEAR(2) is diminished:

Migrating from YEAR(2) to YEAR(4)

Should you decide to convert YEAR(2) columns to YEAR(4), you can do so manually at any time without upgrading. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a version of MySQL with reduced support for YEAR(2) (MySQL 5.6.6 or later), then have MySQL convert YEAR(2) columns automatically. In the latter case, avoid upgrading by dumping and reloading your data because that can change data values. In addition, if you use replication, there are upgrade considerations you must take into account.

To convert YEAR(2) columns to YEAR(4) manually, use ALTER TABLE. Suppose that a table t1 has this definition:

CREATE TABLE t1 (ycol YEAR(2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '70');

Modify the column using ALTER TABLE as follows. Remember to include any column attributes such as NOT NULL or DEFAULT:

ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY ycol YEAR(4) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1970';

The ALTER TABLE statement converts the table without changing YEAR(2) values. If the server is a replication master, the ALTER TABLE statement replicates to slaves and makes the corresponding table change on each one.

Another migration method is to perform a binary upgrade: Install MySQL 5.6.6 or later without dumping and reloading your data. Then run mysql_upgrade, which uses REPAIR TABLE to convert YEAR(2) columns to YEAR(4) without changing data values. If the server is a replication master, the REPAIR TABLE statements replicate to slaves and make the corresponding table changes on each one, unless you invoke mysql_upgrade with the --skip-write-binlog option.

Upgrades to replication servers usually involve upgrading slaves to a newer version of MySQL, then upgrading the master. For example, if a master and slave both run MySQL 5.5, a typical upgrade sequence involves upgrading the slave to 5.6, then upgrading the master to 5.6. With regard to the different treatment of YEAR(2) as of MySQL 5.6.6, that upgrade sequence results in a problem: Suppose that the slave has been upgraded but not yet the master. Then creating a table containing a YEAR(2) column on the master results in a table containing a YEAR(4) column on the slave. Consequently, these operations will have a different result on the master and slave, if you use statement-based replication:

To avoid such problems, use one of these strategies:

One migration method should be avoided: Do not dump your data with mysqldump and reload the dump file after upgrading. This has the potential to change YEAR(2) values, as described previously.

A migration from YEAR(2) to YEAR(4) should also involve examining application code for the possibility of changed behavior under conditions such as these: